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Off-screen system (Backup)
__NOEDITSECTION__ Off-Screen System= __NOEDITSECTION__ This is the first iteration of the Off-Screen system. When you call on your allies, when you meet with your mentors, when you deal with your territory and things happen by dice-rolls, greatly compressing time, you're dealing with the Off-Screen System. At times, you may zoom 'on-screen', putting you back down on the street and in your character's shoes (or lack thereof) and dealing with the dangers of the World of Darkness on the RP-level. When these happen and when this issue is enforced is listed in the following sections, broken down to allow everyone to search these terms quickly and easily. At the end will list a series of questions and step-by-step instructions to help you get the hang of the system directly as the situations occur. Remember that actions are always Simple, Contested, Resisted, or Extended, and can be almost any mix of the four. :Simple actions simply require success or a number of successes. :Contested actions have an opposed dicepool. :Resisted actions have a penalty to the acting dicepool. :Extended actions can be rolled a number of times equal to the Attribute + Skill, and often require a target number of successes. Teamwork is sometimes applied to actions, in which a primary actor waits for the others to roll, and adds their successes as bonus dice to his roll. The OSS does not use standard equipment, but does use sites. Because of the prolonged and abstract nature of the actions in the OSS, many merits never come into play. Be aware that even allies actions get a dicepool equal to your Influence Modifier to increase their effectiveness. The Off-Screen System is intended to have refreshes on the first of the month and the Monday of each week. This is intended to create a gap between beat-Fridays and downtime-Mondays, so the storytelling staff can handle the influx of work more readily. Actions will NOT BE PROCESSED on Mondays! The following Tuesday the actions will be resolved in order, and conflicting actions will take into account the time necessary to implement them. Thus if you want to start the defense for your week, you can renew it on Monday, with no fear of the overlap from the previous week elapsing. Note that there is no time drag on defense actions! This is intended. This is the beta issue of the OSS, and any concerns or notes you may have are welcomed. Please send mail to Dagon addressing the issues, and we'll try to preserve a sense of verisimilitude and fairness, while making just about every skill useful at some point in the system. Effective Created April 16, 2014. |-|Terminology = __NOEDITSECTION__ - Territory terminology = __NOEDITSECTION__ Taking territory is a powerful FREE system in the game that serves as a political coup, a method of non-violent struggle, a means of controlling the blood-supply, and a way to be on top of and interact with plot. Controlling territory means you are able to use the full bonus of all sites in the territory and feed from the blood pool. Kingpin: Every territory has a Kingpin. Whether this is a kindred, a neighborhood leader, a judge, a police chief, or a mafia don. Capturing a territory means running off the kingpin. This might happen naturally as the chaos in the area ramps up, or it might happen immediately as a result of intimidation, violence, mind control, or bribery on the part of those who try to take the area under their control. Serfs: Serfs, as the Kindred use the term, have no special rules or traits. Characters at this level of the political hierarchy are likely to be unaligned with the covenants and may be outlaws. Unlike the role of the serf in mortal society, Kindred serfs are not essential to the societal system of the Damned. Tenants handle enough of the production of Vitae and service necessary for the lords, and many vampires are self-sufficient anyway. Serfs among the Damned are hardly considered Kindred yet. They hold a place more suitable for ghouls and blood dolls — though even ghouls may be brought inside the house. Tenants: This is, more or less, the default situation of play in Vampire: The Requiem. Tenants are subordinate to elders, covenant leaders, and landlords. Though the characters may have their own havens, they have to scratch out a place for themselves in the city and their covenants if they want to get ahead in the Danse Macabre or find satisfaction in their Requiems. Characters at this level can have virtually any level of Covenant Status or Clan Status but seldom have more than a dot or two in City Status, at least at first. Characters are likely to be agents of more powerful Kindred or the covenants in general. A superior wants something done, and she asks the characters to do it. That’s the basic hook for stories about tenants. For examples of the kinds of things tenants may be dispatched to do, see the relevant covenant guidebook or Coteries. Vassals: A city’s political scheme may have multiple layers of vassals between the low tenants and the Regents who are so near to the Prince. A vassal, generally, is any Kindred beneath a Regent with the ability to grant out (sub-infeudate) her territory to other Kindred. Thus, all Kindred above tenants and below the Regents are vassals. Characters at this level of the hierarchy may be influential members of vampire society and in command of prestigious domains and valuable Sites that put her at the center of Kindred plans for the future. Or a character at this level may be a backwater nobody sitting atop a useless span of houses and garages with little political value and waiting to find her big break. Vassals may be prominent members of local covenants, promoted simply to encourage them to share their valuable turf, or are rank-and-file groundlings who are expected to graciously host the occasional covenant-mate out near dawn now and again. Vassals, owing fealty to their liege lords above them, may participate in the same kind of errands and missions as tenants (and any other street-level vampires). Vassals are also close enough to the action, though, to plan their own local coups and take power where they can. Vassals are the most mobile creatures in the Kindred hierarchy and are often the source of the strife that shakes of the schema of local politics. - Territory traits = __NOEDITSECTION__ Access: Access is the Physical-Interactive territory trait. This trait describes how easy it is to get into or out of the District, or to move around within it. Positive modifiers describe a neighborhood with ample cabs, a working subway or elevated train, bus lines, easy-to-navigate roads, reasonable traffic and street signs. Negative modifiers describe a neighborhood with no sidewalks, no passing cabs, no local subway station (or a lousy one), inconsistent buses, bad or broken roads, constant construction, missing signage and the like. Safety: Safety is the Physical-Reactive territory trait. This trait describes the likelihood of getting hurt within the District — whether you’re a stranger or a local. A District with positive Safety modifiers has locks on the doors, maybe bars on the windows, a reasonable expectation that the police will come if called, streetlights and so forth. A District with Safety penalties may be ramshackle, low-rent, behind the times or otherwise vulnerable; or it could simply be rife with thugs, drug-seekers, maniacs, wild dogs, bloodthirsty monsters and other dangerous creatures who believe they can hurt people and get away with it in this part of town. Consider how the Safety and Stability traits can interact, too: a highly stable neighborhood might not lock its doors, because it doesn't fear its neighbors, while a block caught in the middle of a gang war might be heavily patrolled by police (for a positive Safety rating) but still ready to explode (due to its negative Stability). Information: Information is the Mental-Interactive territory trait. The Information trait describes the volume or quality of information that can be gotten about the District from within the District. A neighborhood with a good Information rating has a local newspaper, kiosks with pinned-up flyers, posters for local events, community representatives, talkative passersby, a website, ATMs and/or public Internet access. If the locals are in touch with each other and have a strong sense of what’s happening in the community, the place has a positive Information trait — though they may still be unwilling to talk with outsiders if they have a poor Stability or Safety trait. A neighborhood with a lousy Information modifier is barren and dead to the eyes and ears: street signs may be missing, stores have signs that say only GAS or CHECKS CASHED, people avoid asking each other questions and they certainly don’t give out information to strangers who come nosing around. Awareness: Awareness is the Mental-Reactive territory trait. Awareness is tied to Information, but is not dependent on it. Although a District theoretically needs good Awareness to be well-informed, that’s not necessarily the case. Information is the trait that benefits from Town Hall meetings, while Awareness is the trait that benefits from streetlights and a good view. Dark, crowded Districts littered with junk, where stained windows, long shadows and the drone of constant highway traffic overhead make it hard to see or hear, have big Awareness penalties. In those places, the locals might want to call the cops on the blood-seeking freak creeping around in the alley behind their garages, but they can’t if they don’t know he’s there. Districts with quality streetlights, motion-sensitive bulbs, good sight-lines and a quiet ambiance have positive Awareness ratings. The people is these places are likely to notice someone climbing up the fire escape across the street, though they may not be involved enough to call the cops. Prestige: Prestige is the Social-Interactive territory trait. This trait may be tricky to understand, if only because it is not actually concerned with Prestige, per se. Rather, this trait describes how well regarded a neighborhood is, even if it is not actually prestigious. A District that is well-known, but reviled, has a high negative modifier in this trait. A neighborhood that "you know, seems okay, but I don’t know what it’s called," has a very low but positive modifier in this trait. The higher the number, the greater the impact on people who are told about the place or taken there — the greater the draw and the further away its known. Positive numbers attract people, negative numbers keep them away. Consider how this trait is separate from Information, Safety and Stability: A place may be unsafe, unruly and poorly documented and still attract people to it. Maybe they come for the cheap drugs or the pussy, maybe they come for the novelty or the nightclubs, maybe they come for some last great restaurant holding out in the ruins of a once-great neighborhood. The point is, they come. Stability: Stability is the Social-Reactive territory trait. Stability describes the feeling of community in the District, how likely locals are to come to each other’s aid or turn their backs on the suffering going on outside their windows. A District with a positive Stability modifier gives a shit about its neighbors, calls the police when it hears gunshots or comes running when there’s a fire. A District with a negative Stability modifier is eerily still and quiet and stays that way even while some kid is bleeding to death in the street from the bullet in his gut. Consider the ways this trait interacts with Safety. A neighborhood may be unsafe but defiantly maintaining its identity and camaraderie in the face of a drug war. A neighborhood may be well patrolled and generally law-abiding, but populated with coldly removed residents who figure it’s none of their business why the people next door are squeezing off automatic weapons. In a neighborhood that’s unsafe but stable, homeowners might shoot you themselves if you fuck with the block. In a neighborhood that’s unsafe and unstable, the neighbor who rushes to your side after you’re shot might just be there to loot your shit. Atmosphere: Each territory has an atmosphere determined by its default state, and the actions that have had an impact on it. Dead, Isolated, Welcoming, Accepting, Drowsy, Calm, Wary, Simmering, Unruly, Simmering, and Antagonistic atmospheres are all possible. Atmosphere reverts back towards the native atmosphere one step per night. Some Crises change the atmosphere for longer periods of time. Atmosphere modifiers apply to extended actions, and off-screen actions only. }} |-|Time= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Spending limits= __NOEDITSECTION__ Kindred may not spend more than ten hours in a single day on off-screen actions. Mortals may spend 12. Bound Ghouls may spend 15. Guarding a territory takes one hour automatically from each day, though the seven hours are spent all at once. - How much time does it take?= __NOEDITSECTION__ :Allies - 1 hour/level/month. :Attacking Assets - 12 hours + 2/level. :Attacking Territory - 12 hours + 4/roll. :Blackmailing Allies - 2 hours/month/level. :Blackmailing Retainers - 1 hour/month/level. :Calling in favors (by phone) - 1 hour/favor. :Calling in favors (in person) - 2 hours/favor. :Coercion - 12 hours + 4 hours/level :Covenant Status - 1 hour per dot per week. :Covering your actions - 7 hours. :Covering your tracks or assets - 7 hours/week. :Defending Groups/Territory - 7 hours/week. :Defending Individuals = 20 hours/week. :Growing assets - 4 hours/roll. :Building new sites - 20 hours + 4/Prestige :Hobbyist Clique - 4 hours/month. :Hunting - 1 hour :Improving Territory Traits - 10 hours/roll. :Pack Alpha - 2 hours/week/pack member. :Poaching - 2 hours :Retainers - 1 hour/level/month. :Secret Society Membership - 2 hours/month/dot. :Status (Influence) - 4 hours/month/level. - Running out of time= __NOEDITSECTION__ Maybe you don't have time when your ally needs your help, not right now, not when the monsters are breathing down your neck. Maybe you got torpored and missed your weekly Invictus meeting. Maybe you had a bad fight with your girlfriend and anything more than driving around your territory is too much for you right now. Your relationship becomes exhausted when you do this. Subtract one from the rating of any merit that relies on upkeep. If you fail to make up the hours in the next iteration you lose one dot. As soon as you make up the lost hours, the exhausted condition goes away. Merits that require upkeep are: :Allies - 1 hour per level per month. :Covenant Status - 1 hour per dot per week. :Hobbyist Clique - 4 hours per month. :Pack Alpha - 2 hours per pack member per week. :Retainers - 1 hour per level per month. :Secret Society Membership - 2 hours per dot per month. :Status (Influence) - 4 hours per status rating per month. }} |-|Actions= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Getting Things Done= __NOEDITSECTION__ There are four means by which to accomplish a given task. You can call in a favor from an Ally; you can use your Status; you can assign a Retainer to take care of it; or you can do it yourself. The dicepools listed under each action assume you are either doing it yourself or that you are assigning a Retainer to deal with the issue. - Status= __NOEDITSECTION__ Status can be used to take legal actions that are part of the status' realm of influence. You cannot quarantine an area with health status unless there is reasonable expectation of an actual health outbreak. You cannot order the apprehension of an individual unless they are actually implicated in a crime. However, and this is a big however, creating and causing issues and making legal pull of your status requires NO TIME. Any actions you take within the events of your status are already covered by the very steep downtime cost of the Status. Being a doctor is hard work, and takes a lot of maintenance, but has significant advantages as well. Maintaining your workaday identity and your status requires 4 hours per level of status per month. - Retainers= __NOEDITSECTION__ Retainers have their own dicepools, and are only limited by the number of hours they have available to serve you each week. Retainers must also be defined by a control method, which will affect their Upkeep. :Retainer 1: 48 hours :Retainer 2: 40 hours :Retainer 3: 32 hours :Retainer 4: 24 hours :Retainer 5: 16 hours As retainer levels increase, so too does their necessary time to upkeep their skills, maintenance their equipment and relationships, and achieve the excellence that makes them so desirable. Retainers are capable of taking any actions that PCs are, with their usual dice-limits. Ghoul retainers require their level in vitae each month to operate at peak efficiency. They also gain the appropriate dice-pool modifiers for their disciplines, where appropriate. A one- or two-dot retainer gets one dot of their regnant's in-clan discipline; a three- or four-dot retainer gets two dots of disciplines; a five-dot retainer gets three dots of disciplines. These may exceed their regnant's mastery level only in the case of the physical disciplines (Celerity, Resilience, or Vigor). }} - Feeding = __NOEDITSECTION__ Feeding Grounds are valuable and powerful tools. In an uncontrolled feeding ground, kindred may feed as poachers for half (round down) the value of the feeding ground dots. Feeding in your own feeding ground adds the feeding grounds full rating, as well as giving the feeding ground bonus on predatory aura conflicts anywhere in the territory. (IE: Derby - Not French Hill.) A feeding ground must be seized from the owner before a territory can be controlled. Seizing a feeding ground requires feeding in it three nights running, or driving the controlling kindred off the feeding ground with a Predatory Aura challenge. Feeding grounds are an excellent way of securing territory against intrigue. Lex Terrae affects a feeding ground. If a Kindred controls both a feeding ground and the territory in which it resides, Lex Terrae affects all blood in the territory. If a Kindred controls a Domain and all feeding grounds within it, Lex Terrae affects the entire Domain. - Poaching= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Simple Time: 2 hours Dicepool: (See Feeding) :Farmer: Wits + Survival + (half Protean) + 3 (Low) :Casanova: Presence + Persuasion + Majesty - Territory Stability (High) :Mugging: Strength + Stealth + Obfuscate + (half Protean) - Territory Safety (Moderate) :Sandman: Wits + Larceny + (half Protean) - Territory Awareness (Low) Command: +hunt/ # Primacy: No Teamwork: No Poaching is done in a territory where you do not have permission to feed. Poaching costs two hours per roll, and you only receive half the benefits of territory modifiers or feeding grounds you use, though you still pay full penalties. }} - Acquisition= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Growing= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Growing Assets= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Simple and Extended Time: 4 hours per roll Dicepool: Manipulation + Intimidation (High) :Manipulation + Subterfuge (Moderate) :Manipulation + Persuasion (Low) Successes required: New level squared. Command: +request Raise (Asset) to (level)= Primacy: No Teamwork: No Allies must be grown one level at a time. Retainers may be acquired at any level, but thereafter must be grown one level at a time. - Growing Territory= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Instant (for a new site) or Extended (for improving traits) Time: 16 hours + 4 hours per prestige of the territory (for a new site) or 8 hours per roll (for improving traits) Dicepool: Manipulation + Politics Command: +request Lobby for (site) in (territory)= Primary: Yes Teamwork: Yes The maximum site that can be created is equal to the successes gained. One success can be spent to add a number of skill dots to a site equal to one less than the site's rating, or two to add a second skill at the maximum rating. Thus if you gained six successes, you could lobby to have a hospital made with Medicine 4, Science 3, Streetwise 2, and Academics 1 (A teaching hospital with free-drug programs that result in perhaps some of the free drugs not being exactly what are supposed to be given out) in a poor neighborhood... or a Medicine/Science 4 hospital created in a neighborhood with high research facilities on hand. The first example is four for the maximum rating, one success for the science, and one success for both the streetwise and academics. The second example is four for the maximum rating, and two successes to match the science. Creating new sites also requires multiple favors in the correct allies areas. To create a new site requires 3 favors, + 1 favor per level of the site. Each favor must be appropriate to the type of site, and one level higher than the site level. (To create the above hospital would require a Health 5 favor to get the licensing, a Politics 5 favor for zoning, a Legal 5 favor for insurance and counsel, three Health 5 favors to get staff and supplies from around the country, a Finance 5 favor to set up the funding necessary to get it running; a Finance 4 favor to set up the insurance payments, a Finance 4 favor to set up the payroll, a High Society 4 favor to throw a fund-raiser and get wealthy beneficiaries involved; a Street 3 favor to put the word out on the free drugs, an Underworld 3 favor to get the thing orderly and corrupt; and a University or Finance 2 favor to put the pathology library into place by donation or by purchase.) Putting the site into play requires a minimum of one week per rating. If you are creating a Feeding Ground, you must buy the Feeding Ground Merit in addition to the above. It is protected as per usual for Sanctity of Merits. Growing territory traits costs 10 hours per roll, and takes a number of successes equal to five times the new territory trait. (IE: raising the safety of a territory from 1 to 2 takes 10 successes.) Raising or lowering a trait to 0 still takes 1 success. }} - Investigating = __NOEDITSECTION__ You may add half your Animalism dots (rounded down) and all your Auspex dots to any Investigation action. - Investigating an Asset = __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Resisted (Streetwise) and Extended Time: Investigation costs 1 hour to begin, and takes 2 hours per die roll, time paid in advance Dicepool: Wits + Investigation + (half Protean)(Low) :Wits + Empathy + (half Protean)(Moderate) :Wits + Streetwise/Politics + (half Protean)(High) Command: +request Investigate (Thing)= Primacy: No Teamwork: No You can investigate allies to see who has ratings in an ally group. Some assets may be rated (NDC) for 'no direct contact'. In this case, other names may appear to be in control of another character's assets. This is especially true of the Invictus, whose servants often serve many masters. Three successes reveals the character who controls a level 5 ally, six reveals level 4, nine reveals level 3, twelve reveals level 2, and fifteen successes reveals all current direct contact characters in a single ally group. If you investigate to level 2, any character with 5 levels in that ally group is automatically informed as if you had failed exposure. If you investigate level 1, any character with 4 levels in that ally group is automatically informed as if you had failed exposure. You can investigate retainers or mentors to see who they work for, or what asset skills they have. This investigation is either very hard, or common sense. Investigating a chauffeur may be a waste of time, unless he's a secretly SAS-trained assassin serving as a hidden ninja bodyguard of his vampire overlord and just happens to drive his car. Higher rated servants are more discreet, and finding out whose asset they are requires 3 + Rating successes on investigation rolls. You can investigate Feeding Grounds to see who has been feeding there and to see who controls them. You can investigate Resources if you have successfully completed at least one successful investigation on a character, by investigating the character. This reveals what (if anything) the resources are tied to. - Investigating an Action = __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Resisted (Streetwise or Stealth) and Extended Time: Investigation costs 1 hour to begin, and takes 2 hours per die roll, time paid in advance Dicepool: Wits + Investigation + (half Protean)(Low) :Wits + Empathy + (half Protean)(Moderate) :Wits + Streetwise/Politics + (half Protean)(High) Command: +request Investigation (thing)= Primacy: No Teamwork: No A new crisis has arisen in your territory and you want to know what caused it. Someone has been poking into your affairs and you want to know who. One of your retainers was just shot in the street and you need to know if it was a random act of violence, or a calculated hit from another Kindred. Every three successes on the investigation allows you to ask the ST one question. 'Was this the result of an exploit?' 'Did Debonair Rival do this?' 'Is this from a supernatural creature I know about?' 'Who was here when this place burned down?' are all valid questions. Your dice-pool is modified by the area awareness, and by the atmosphere of the area, and loses one die per day after the fact. - Investigating Territory= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Resisted (Streetwise) and Extended Time: Investigation costs 1 hour to begin, and takes 2 hours per die roll, time paid in advance Dicepool: Wits + Investigation + (half Protean)(Low) :Wits + Empathy + (half Protean)(Moderate) :Wits + Streetwise/Politics + (half Protean)(High). Command: +request Investigate (Thing)= Primacy: No Teamwork: No You can investigate territory to see who has a haven there (but not where it is), to see what crises are active, to see who has been feeding there within the last (successes) days, or to find an exploit. If the territory is claimed by another Kindred, Cacophany Savvy adds 1 die to any rolls to find exploits. }} - Cover-Ups = __NOEDITSECTION__ Cover-Ups are how you defend against investigation. You may add your dots in Nightmare and your dots in the Alternate Identity Merit directly to all Cover-Up rolls. - Covering for your Assets = __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Simple/Contested Time: 7 hours (Weekly) Dicepool: Manipulation + Subterfuge (Moderate) :Wits + Streetwise + (half Protean)(Low) Command: +request Cover-up (Asset)= Primacy: Yes Teamwork: Yes You can send assets to run interference, or you can do it yourself. Defending any asset against Investigation is a Streetwise or Subterfuge skill. Cover-Ups for assets cost 7 hours and is handled just like defending territory. You may also defend your assets by placing them under the control of other assets. By only having your major domo contact your police allies, investigating the police turns up his name, not yours, requiring a further investigation. By placing your mook squad under the control of your gang boss, their actions lead back to him, not to you. Retainers with Status automatically have a Cover-Up equal to their rating in successes, making an opposed roll very difficult. - Covering Up an Action = __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Simple/Contested Time: 7 hours per specific action. Dicepool: Manipulation + Subterfuge (Moderate) :Wits + Streetwise + (half Protean)(Low); + Celerity (if it is your own action, only). Primacy: No Teamwork: Yes You can send assets to clean up your mess, or you can do it yourself. As usual, the Cover-Up causes investigating the action to become contested. }} - Defending= __NOEDITSECTION__ If you have the Anonymity Merit, its value is added to the resistance against attacks by bureaucratic, legal, or political Allies. - Defending Assets= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Simple/Contested Time: 16 Hours (Weekly) for Retainers or Mentors; 7 Hours (Weekly) for Feeding Grounds, Allies, or Safe Place/Haven Dicepool: Strength + Brawl/Weaponry + (half Protean) (High) :Dexterity + Firearms + (half Protean rounded down)(High) :Defending against Coercion only: Presence/Strength + Intimidation + Majesty + (half Protean)(High) Command: +request Defend (Asset)= Primacy: Yes Teamwork: Yes An asset can be set to defend a territory or defend another asset, or you may personally defend your own assets and territories. You spend time each night checking in with your assets and defending them. You add your Stamina, Resolve, or Composure to the resistance of the asset. Groups may defend assets or territory together, with each other actor adding half their appropriate attribute. If an attack is made on a defended asset or territory, groups may respond at the coterie level after the roll is resolved. Thus if an enemy takes a Destroy action against Bontemps, Vampire Bill and Sookie may add Vampire Bill's Stamina to the defense, and half of Sookie's Composure. If Debonair Rival's roll (penalized appropriately) succeeds, the Destruction occurs, and then Vampire Bill and Sookie may choose whether or not to have an encounter with 'whoever tore up Kimbal Lane', reducing the Access of the territory. Whether this is Debonair Rival personally, or a construction crew, the action zooms back down to the Coterie level, and the scene is sealed. No outside actors may join in. The Alternate Identity Merit adds its rating in dice toward the defense of any Asset. It's hard to seize the bank accounts of someone who has all the paperwork for an identity you're uncertain of. - Defending Territory= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Simple/Contested Time: 7 hours (Weekly) Dicepool: None Command: +request Patrol (territory)= Primacy: Yes Teamwork: No Defending a territory takes 7 downtime hours. While these are paid up front (when the action is put in) they remove one maximum hour from each day instead of costing seven hours in the first day, to represent patrolling the territory. Defending a territory lasts seven days from when the action is placed. }} - Destroying= __NOEDITSECTION__ If you use Bureaucratic, Legal, or Political means to attack, the attack is additionally resisted by the character's dots in the Anonymity Merit. - Destroying an Asset = __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Resisted (Asset) and Extended Time: 12 Hours, + 4 hours per rating of the asset Dicepool: Strength + Brawl/Weaponry + (half Protean)(High) :Dexterity + Firearms + (half Protean)(High) :Intelligence + Science/Stealth + Obfuscate (Low) Command: +request Attack (Asset)= Primacy: Yes Teamwork: Yes Destroying Assets puts them in the hospital, puts them in jail, or puts them in the morgue Targeting a specific Ally rating of a specific Kingpin reduces the hours needed and the difficulty of destroying the Ally group within the city. Not targeting a specific Ally rating of a specific Kingpin pits your action against the rating of the city itself (usually 5). Destroying an Asset necessitates either zooming in to a scene, or a number of successes equal to Rating + 4. On-screen, if any NPC assets are killed, relevant retainers are removed completely and relevant ally ratings are permanently reduced by one. Off-screen, any damage done to the Asset exhausts it for one week per success. - Attacking Territory= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Resisted and Extended Time: 12 hours + 4 hours per roll Dicepool: are the appropriate rolls here? + Animalism Command: +request Attack (Territory) Attacking territory results in shutting down sites and lowering territory traits. This takes a number of successes equal to five times the site maximum, or five times the new territory trait. (IE: lowering the safety of a territory from -3 to -4 takes 20 successes) }} - Coercion= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Coercing Assets= __NOEDITSECTION__ Action: Resisted (Asset) and Extended Time: 12 Hours, + 4 hours per rating of the asset Dicepool: Manipulation + Intimidation (High) :Manipulation + Subterfuge (Moderate) :Manipulation + Persuasion (Low) Primacy: Yes Teamwork: No Coercion of Assets brings them under your control and removes them from another Kingpin, aka; Stealing Dots. 'Stolen' dots must be paid for with beats as usual, or they are destroyed at the end of the month. Subversion: It is possible to put 'taps' or 'false friends' inside another character's assets. By succeeding with a number of successes equal to the controlling character's Presence, the asset reports all actions taken with/inside it back to the subversive character. Blood-bound assets are immune to non-supernatural subversion. Triple Agent: If someone attempts to subvert your blood-bound asset, or if someone fails exposure and you defend against the coercion attempt, you can attempt to hide your defense, and allow the subverting character to believe they have succeeded. In which case you can feed false information at will to give them. Creating a Triple Agent requires successfully defending with 3 or more successes, and then succeeding at an intelligence + subterfuge roll, with a bonus equal to the asset's rating, and resisted by the subverting character's empathy or subterfuge. Success equal to the subverting character's wits results in an active Triple Agent. Triple agents lose one favor per month or one hour per day. Failure to create the triple agent leaves the asset at the mercy of the subverter, which may mean destruction. If the coercion ends in violence and any NPC assets are killed, relevant ally ratings are reduced by one, and relevant retainers are removed completely. - Coercing Territory= __NOEDITSECTION__ Coercing territory results in altering the atmosphere. As shown on Territory it takes a certain amount of successes to push territory up or down an atmosphere level. The key to territory coercion is to create events. Creating an event, rather than a crisis, still requires finding an Exploit through investigation, and then 24 hours of downtime to set up the work. Roll an appropriate dicepool (which will always be Wits, Intelligence, or Manipulation-based) to garner a number of successes. These successes trickle off at 1 per day as the territory attempts to return to it's previous atmosphere, unless you succeed in changing the atmosphere. Some atmospheres are temporary, and atmosphere can shift according to the presence of Crises. }} - Upkeep= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Retainers= __NOEDITSECTION__ Retainers also require a minimum of 1 hour per month per level to maintain. Retainers controlled by bloodbond require blood equal to their level. They also exhaust one dot if deprived, but if their deprived condition lasts two months in a row the retainer is destroyed. :Bloodbonding is the best means of control because every vampire has access to blood, and because the bloodbond is the ultimate control mechanism. Bloodbound allies cannot be coerced. :''Bloodbonding is the worst means of control because it creates fanatics, and requires continual upkeep. You can switch from any other method to this one, but you can't switch away from this method without basically destroying your retainer. Retainers controlled by blackmail require additional hours equal to their level. Reduce the total hours necessary to blackmail Retainers by your level of Obfuscate, to a minimum of 1. :Blackmail is the best means of control because all it takes is time - and it's a super-nifty way to uncover plot! :''Blackmail is the worst means of control because you're likely to get inundated by plot. Retainers controlled by bribery are considered to be hired at a flat cost of twice their level per month. :Bribery is the best means of control because all you have to do is throw money at the problem. :''Bribery is the worst means of control because it requires huge scads of money. Each retainer you are controlling by bullying forces a single breaking point each month, at a level equal to 8 - the asset level. More powerful and competent retainers require bigger, grander, and more sadistic displays of power to keep them in line. :Bullying is the best means of control because it costs you nothing - not time and not money. And once your Humanity is low enough, you don't have make those checks anymore. Also, beats for breaking points! :''Bullying is the worst means of control because it makes you a horrible freaking monster. And do you really want Retainers who secretly hate you and are hoping for you to fail? }} }}